Syria opposition rift widens - Thursday 17 May

Opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun says he will resign as president to of Syrian National Council, after the activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria threaten to withdraw from the group. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Syria

• Burhan Ghalioun, newly reielected as president of the Syrian National Council, has announced that he will resign "as soon as a replacement is found". His move follows criticism from the Local Co-ordination Committees activist group, though there is some scepticism as to whether he will actually step down.

• UN monitors have been given a huge and rapturous welcome by students at Aleppo university, though there are fears about what may happen when the monitors leave.

• There is mounting concern about the opposition stronghold of Rastan following reports overnight of shelling by government forces (see 10.05am).

Bahrain

• Bahraini newspapers have published a "rogues' gallery" of 20 men said to be suspected of bomb attacks that injured at least 16 policemen (see 9.37am).

Egypt

• Fourteen police officers have been cleared of killing protesters on the "Friday of Anger" during last year's uprising against the Mubarak regime (see 3.15pm).

Lebanon

• A 13-year-old boy was killed and at least four other people wounded by sniper fire in the Lebanese city of Tripoli this morning (see 11.38am).

4.49pm:Syria: A selection of the latest tweets about the demonstrations in Aleppo:

4.30pm:Syria: Shakeeb al-Jabri (@LeShaque) who has been monitoring today's events at Aleppo university has sent us this email:

Students at Aleppo university today held their biggest protest yet, taking advantage of the presence of the UN monitors. The students swarmed the monitors' convoy while chanting anti-regime slogans.

The protest grew, drawing many students who flooded the university's main square. In a live feed broadcast on the internet by activists the monitors' cars could be seen stuck in a massive crowd. The students climbed the cars and waved independence flags.

The cars disappeared into the crowd as the students chanted slogans demanding freedom. The students also chanted "freedom" in English for the benefit of the monitors. The activist broadcasting the protest was heard telling a monitor who left the convey: "This is the first time we taste freedom in this country, please understand."

The same monitor was seen on the feed arguing with the activist and a security officer. The broadcaster explained as he made his way back to the protest that they wanted him to put away the camera and he was threatened by the security officer.

The students took their protest outside the university campus but were assaulted by security officers and the feed cut off. Activists report that the UN convoy departed and the security forces opened fire on the students as soon as they left the university, dispersing the protest.

Burhan Ghalioun has served his purpose. He has steered us to near recognition, and has given the world an entity with which to conduct (some) business. But he has overstayed his welcome.

It is time for Ghalioun to go.

The people want the removal of Ghalioun or the removal of the SNC. If the SNC falls apart, the world will throw its hands up and say: deal with your own problems. We can't afford that now.

Ghalioun: we will not sacrifice the legitimacy of the revolution for you to have your moment in the sun. At your age the sun is no good for you in large doses.

It's time to know when you're not wanted and make that respectful exit before you are forced into early retirement. You once said politics was not your game and you were going to step aside. Sir, it is not your game and now is that time to step aside. Internal pie cutting when the pie isn't yours is cheap and premature.

I call on all activists to support the campaign to force Burhan Ghalioun into a resignation and call on the Syrian National Council to conduct emergency open elections to choose a President worthy of the respect of the Syrian people. The same people who daily continue to protest, who daily are slaughtered and who daily prove there are no braver souls on Earth.

3.49pm:Kuwait: Today's Kuwait Times reports on the joys of being a censor. Here are a couple of quotes from its interview with Dalal Al-Mutairi, a senior book censor who takes obvious pride in her work:

Many people consider the censor to be a fanatic and uneducated person, but this isn't true. We are the most literate people as we have read much, almost every day. We receive a lot of information from different fields. We read books for children, religious books, political, philosophical, scientific ones and many others.

She continues ...

I like this work. It gives us experience, information and we always learn something new. It takes about a year or a year and a half to become a censor, as the person is first employed as a censor assistant.

The employee first starts slow in reading and it takes him a week or days to finish a book. Also, beginners are not given political or religious books ... as these are difficult. Instead we give them children's books or some scientific books, which are easy.

Mona says what he said is more ambiguous. She translates him talking about troops issuing a "red warning".

In an interview on Skype, Hamman agreed that that was what the monitor said.

He said the monitor's name was Aziz and that he came from Morocco. He said the conversation took place half an hour after the shooting at a funeral.

Azziz was one of six monitors who Hamman said chose to stay with residents in Khan Sheikhoun under the protection of the Free Syrian Army.

He confirmed that none of the monitors were injured in the attack. Hamman said the group also included a monitor each from Yemen, Brazil, Bangladesh and Holland. He did not know the nationality of the sixth monitor.

He added that 40 people had been killed since the first shooting incident, including one of the activists who filmed the scene.

When Hamman and his brother challenged Azziz about the shooting the monitor said he could only protect them by "pen and paper". On the video he is heard to say: "We are watching the reality and conveying the truth."

Asked what he saw, the monitor said: "I saw peaceful demonstrations and a 'red warning' by the official army."

Kofi Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi gave a different version of events after the incident. He said: "Shortly after 2pm local time, an UNSMIS convoy of four vehicles was struck by an explosion from an improvised explosive device."

3.15pm:Egypt: Fourteen police officers have been cleared of killing protesters on the "Friday of Anger" during last year's uprising against the Mubarak regime, the Egypt Independent reports.

The defence team argued that the prosecution had no evidence against their clients and also said the suspects were not present at those locations during the incidents in question.

State-run Al-Akhbar newspaper said the victims' families present outside the trial expressed anger upon hearing the verdict, with some of them fainting.

3.07pm:Syria: Some preliminary analysis of the tussle between the Local Co-ordinating Committees (LCCS) and SNC president Burhan Ghalioun from James Miller at EAWorldview:

The LCCS is a networked organisation that operates in every major city and many towns and villages across Syria ... The LCCS, while not explicitly political, has a huge degree of influence inside Syria. With its validation of information and attempts to release unified statements from committees around the country, if the LCCS says that the SNC or Burhan Ghalioun do not represent the will of the Syrian people, then this has significant repercussions.

So it would appear that Ghalioun's resignation is recognition that he has lost the public support of the Syrian opposition.

However, Miller cautions that a close reading of Ghalioun's "resignation" statement suggests he many not stand down if the adequate "replacement" is not discovered.

Miller also cautions against overstating rifts within the opposition:

"Splintered" suggests that there are major ideological divisions within the opposition. There aren't. Nationwide, the sentiment in the streets is clear: most people believe in the Free Syrian Army, they believe in foreign intervention, and they renounce sectarian divides ...

What's more, the Syrian opposition seems to be progressing without leadership. The SNC is not organising street protests, nor do they appear to have played a role in the arming of opposition fighters, nor are they coordinating attacks against the Assad military. Yet all of these occur daily.

The Syrian resistance to the Assad government, represented by the peaceful protests and the armed insurgency, are gradually eroding the pillars of the regime.

2.28pm:Syria: Students at Aleppo university gave a noisy, almost rapturous welcome to UN monitors. In the video below, said to have been filmed today, they can be seen clinging to a UN car and hoisting the revolution flag.

"I declare my resignation as soon as a replacement is found through elections or consensus," Ghalioun told Reuters.

"I have not chosen this post for personal gain, but I have been accepting it to preserve cohesion. I am not ready to be a cause for division. The revolution is above personalities," he added.

The splintered Syrian National Council re-elected the secular liberal Ghalioun as president on Tuesday, but several senior members said his continued re-election would not help the council promote a democratic alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.

Ghalioun has led the opposition in exile since the SNC's creation in August 2011.

Infighting and a lack of political coherence within the SNC have hindered its effort to win formal international recognition as the sole legitimate representative of the anti-Assad movement.

Meanwhile, Shakeeb al-Jabri tweets:

Ghalioun's resignation is a step forward for the SNC but that does not solve its problems. Major reform still needed. #Syria

1.23pm:Syria: Rafif Jouejati, English-language spokeswoman for the Local Co-ordinating Committees in Syria, criticised the leadership of the opposition Syrian National Council as ineffective, unaccountable, and out of touch with the demands of protesters.

Jouejati said that under the leadership of Burhan Ghalioun the SNC had failed to lobby for international intervention as protesters have demanded.

In an interview with the Guardian she said:

People on the streets have request assistance at multiple levels. First and foremost they have requested humanitarian relief in the form of humanitarian corridors . We believe the SNC has failed at that level. People on the streets have also asked for military intervention, and what we have seen is more political processes, like the Annan plan, which has not resulted in any change for the people on the streets.

Explaining the LCC's decision to threaten to withdraw from the group, Jouejati said: "The SNC is not operating in the true democratic principles it promised when it was initially formed. Our issue is that major decisions are being taken by a select group of people at the executive levels without regard to the remainder of the SNC."

She conceded that LCC's threat of withdrawing from the SNC "may appear to make divisions" in the opposition worse. But she claimed it was a "healthy" development because it showed the opposition was beginning to understand what they wanted. She said:

In the past we have only been able to say what we don't want. Now we are able to articulate much more clearly what we do want. The differences will be resolved. This statement from the LCC is a wake up call. The SNC is going to need reorganise itself.

Speaking before Burhan Ghalioun announced his resignation, she said: "He was elected by a small number of people within the SNC. I'm not sure his re-election reflects the general desires of the SNC membership. The SNC needs to reassess its priorities and its decision making processes. If they wish to be an inclusive umbrella organisation they will need to reflect their constituency. Right now they are now."

Ghalioun had failed on the three fronts: internationally, achieving consensus within the council and demonstrating transparency, Jouejati said. "Many of the financial dealings are still a mystery," she said.

1.17pm:Syria: Burhan Ghalioun, the newly re-elected president of the Syrian National Council, has told Al-Arabiya satellite channel that he will step down as soon as a replacement is found. More details shortly.

Syria

• There are signs of a deepening rift among the opposition. The activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees has threatened to withdraw from the opposition Syrian National Council following the re-election of its leader, Burhan Ghalioun (see 9.25am).

• There is mounting concern about the opposition stronghold of Rastan following reports overnight of shelling by government forces (see 10.05am).

Jordan

Lebanon

• A 13-year-old boy was killed and at least four other people wounded by sniper fire in the Lebanese city of Tripoli this morning. Prime minister Najib Mikati now ordered security forces to set up checkpoints in the city and arrest anyone carrying arms in public, the Daily Star reports from Beirut (see 11.38am).

12.45pm:Egypt: Ahram Online has produced a useful guide to where the five leading presidential candidates – Ahmed Shafiq, Hamdeen Sabbahi, Amr Moussa, Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh and Mohamed Mursi – stand on a variety of key political, economic and social issues.

A pullout by the Local Coordination Committees from the Syrian National Council would be a blow for the group, which is already facing political and organisational challenges in its quest to oust President Bashar Assad.

And if the SNC continues to deteriorate, it could complicate efforts for the West and others to get behind the opposition.

Fifteen months into the uprising, Syria's opposition is still struggling to overcome infighting and inexperience, preventing the movement from gaining the traction it needs to present a credible alternative to Assad.

Its international backers have repeatedly appealed for the movement to pull together and work as one unit.

The SNC, whose members are largely Syrian exiles, has tried with little success to gather the opposition under its umbrella and has alienated minorities inside Syria, including the Kurds and Alawites. Other opposition groups accuse it of trying to monopolise power.

Several prominent dissidents, including Haitham al-Maleh and Kamal al-Labwani, have already quit the SNC, calling it an "autocratic" organisation.

In its statement the LCC said: "We have seen nothing except political incompetence in the SNC and a total lack of consensus between its vision and that of the revolutionaries.

The LCC said the council has "drifted away from the spirit of the Syrian revolution in its quest for a civil and democratic state based on the principles of transparency and transfer of power."

11.38am:Lebanon: A 13-year-old boy was killed and at least four other people wounded by sniper fire in Tripoli this morning, the Daily Star reports from Beirut.

Prime minister Najib Mikati has now ordered security forces to erect checkpoints in the city and arrest anyone carrying arms in public, it says.

Three rocket-propelled grenades are reported to have been fired on Syria Street which separates the rival neighbourhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen. Explaining the background to the clashes, the Daily Star says:

The fighting erupted after an Islamist supporter of the Syrian opposition, Shadi Mawlawi, 25, was arrested Saturday and accused of belonging to a "terrorist organisation."

Especially galling to Mawlawi's supporters was that General Security personnel dressed in civilian clothes lured him to a social services centre belonging to Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi with promises of medical care, only to arrest him.

11.30am:Syria: Salman Shaikh, former UN official and director of the Brookings Doha centre, says the LCC's threat of withdrawing from the opposition Syrian National Council (see 9.25am) is a potentially serious blow to the council's credibility.

In an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper in 2003, he questioned al-Qaida's existence. Here's a snippet from AP's story at the time:

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Sunday that he doubts the existence of al-Qaida, the terror group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and recent strikes in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

"Is there really an entity called al-Qaida? Was it in Afghanistan? Does it exist now?" Assad asked, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba.

Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic extremist who heads al-Qaida, "cannot talk on the phone or use the Internet, but he can direct communications to the four corners of the world?" Assad said. "This is illogical."

Such speculation is popular among some in the Arab world who say Washington has manufactured or exaggerated the threat posed by al-Qaida in order to paint Muslims as dangerous.

10.05am:Syria: There is mounting concern about the opposition stronghold of Rastan following reports overnight of shelling by government forces.

He added that at least 30 shells smashed into the town in a 10 minute period, and urged United Nations monitors, deployed to observe a truce that has been violated daily, to immediately visit Rastan.

Encircled by the army and defended by the largest concentration of rebel soldiers in the country, Rastan has for several months been the focus of an offensive by the regime as it attempts to regain control of the town.

On Monday, the UN Supervisory Mission in Syria reported heavy fighting near Rastan, where activists said at least 23 soldiers and seven civilians died in fierce clashes between government forces and rebels.

9.59am:Syria/Iran: Syria is the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a UN security council ban, according to a panel that investigates sanctions-busting, Reuters reports.

Evidence of illegal shipments was uncovered by a group of experts working for the security council's Iran sanctions committee, and Reuters says it saw a copy of their report yesterday. According to Reuters, the report says:

Iran has continued to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments ... Two of these cases involved [Syria], as were the majority of cases inspected by the Panel during its previous mandate, underscoring that Syria continues to be the central party to illicit Iranian arms transfers.

According to the panel, the kinds of arms that Iran was attempting to send to Syria before the shipments were seized by Turkish authorities included assault rifles, machine guns, explosives, detonators, 60mm and 120mm mortal shells and other items, the panel said.

The most recent incident described in the report was an arms shipment discovered in a truck that Turkey seized on its border with Syria in February, Reuters says. Turkey announced last year that it was imposing an arms embargo on Syria.

Wanted men: a screen grab from the Daily Tribune's front page

9.37am: Bahrain: Not to be outdone by President Assad's promise to put "mercenaries" on display, almost all this morning's Bahraini newspapers feature a gallery of 20 men said to be suspected of bomb attacks that injured at least 16 policemen.

The Daily Tribune's front page (above) presents them in the form of a "Wanted" poster. The Gulf Daily news, which includes a hotline phone number and a list of the men's names, says:

Their identities were announced just hours after anti-government thugs blocked roads in different areas of Bahrain yesterday, while a witness said a bomb disposal team removed a suspicious device left on Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway - although an Interior Ministry official said no explosive was found.

9.25am:Syria: Divisions in the oppositions are getting worse. The activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria has threatened to withdraw from the opposition Syrian National Council following the re-election of its leader Burhan Ghalioun.

It complained that revolutionaries inside Syria are being "marginalised" by the council. It added:

We at the Local Co-ordination Committees have refrained from engaging in Council work in the past two months, the most recent of which was the Secretariat General's meeting in Rome [when Ghalioun was re-elected]. We find in the continued deterioration of the Council's situation an impetus for further steps, the first of which may be a freeze in our activity and the final step, our withdrawal from the Council.

It quoted Arkady Dvorkovich as saying: "The G8 meeting will kick off with a working lunch, which will be devoted to the issues of global security and national scenarios, inlcuding, of course, the problems of Syria and Iran."